Sharad Pawar’s lunch invite to CM, Dy CMs leaves both rivals, friends wondering: What’s on the menu?

Deploying yet another of those googlies that his opponents find hard to read, veteran leaderSharad Pawar has invited Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar for lunch as they visit his home turf Baramati on Saturday.

While Pawar Senior himself sent out the letters to all three, his party NCP Sharadchandra Pawar’s senior leader Jayant Patil personally met Shinde to extend the invite.

It’s not just the three top state government functionaries who have been left puzzled by the invite, particularly nephew Ajit, who didn’t just take more than half the NCP from Pawar Senior but also the party name and symbol. Those watching on with more than a tad of apprehension include Pawar’s allies Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), who know better than to take the gesture by the old warhorse at face value.

Pawar has chosen not to offer any reason or explanation, except what he said publicly – that he wanted to give Shinde a traditional welcome as it was his first visit to Baramati in Pune district after becoming CM.

The occasion for which Shinde and his deputies are coming is to unveil an employment scheme, the Namo Maharozgar Yojna, at Baramati. While a similar event was held in Nagpur, Fadnavis’s home town, a couple of months ago, the choice of Baramati is clearly meant to rattle Pawar, with the NDA parties having declared their intention to wrest the Baramati Lok Sabha seat from his family’s control this time.

Besides, while the venue for the function is the Vidya Prathishthan in Baramati, Pawar who heads it and is a Rajya Sabha MP from the state has not been invited for it. The invites have instead gone out to Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule (the sitting Baramati MP) and fellow NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)